During the process of laying up multiple plies of uncured prepreg to form a composite laminate, wrinkles may sometimes form in one or more of the plies. Wrinkling may be due to, without limitation, a ply being deformed during the layup process, and/or to relatively high friction between the reinforcing fibers caused by the tackiness of the uncured resin. Wrinkles are undesirable because they may result in voids or discontinuities in the cured laminate.
In the past, wrinkles occurring in an uncured layup may be removed by applying heat and pressure to the wrinkles by manually “sweeping” the wrinkle using a hand tool that tends to flatten the wrinkle. This prior technique for removing wrinkles is time consuming, and in some cases, may be less than effective.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of reducing or removing wrinkles from uncured fiber reinforced resin laminates that is rapid, effective and does not substantially alter the reinforcing fibers during the wrinkle reduction process.